Days Without My Heart
by Sakura Katana
Summary: Trigon may be defeated, but some of his most loyal servants are left: the Church of Blood! They intend to used Raven for their goals, along with one of Trigon's more reluctant former minions. Slaven, hinted BBRae.
1. Familiarity Breeds Contempt

**A.N: **Hi! This chapter 1 for my first SladeRae fic. It includes an edited version of my oneshot. The POVs switch around a bit, but it shouldn't be confusing because I marked who's POV it is. R&R you guys! I want to know how this is! O yeah, I won't be putting off my other fic, "Thoughts on Crime" for this, in case you're wondering.

**Disclaimer:** Um, hello? If I owned Teen Titans or anything in the DC Universe the cartoon wouldn't be cancelled and I would own a computer. Now go read.

**Slade**

How would it feel to know that whatever you did righteously during your short life meant nothing compared to what you would soon do? To never be able to wholeheartedly celebrate victory, because in the end it was meaningless? To know that you, all you ever were and ever would be were nothing compared to what you would do?

Raven could answer those questions. It intrigued Slade that this girl would end the world someday soon. As he stood next to her open window, gazing on her tranquil, levitating form, he could not help to think for a moment that she did not deserve such a fate.

She looked as if she did not yet know, though it had been several months since her birthday. Raven was sitting cross-legged, floating in midair. Her violet eyes were hidden behind pale lids, her short hair fluttered in the slight breeze from the open window. Besides being her pretty face, wit, and dark powers, Raven had a body that would make any guy wish she wasn't his boss's daughter.

However, enjoying the view was not part of Slade's job. He was the Messenger. His job was to tell Raven her "destiny", even if she _had_ heard it about a hundred times before.

Slade moved silently toward Raven's meditating form. He touched her shoulder. "What?" snapped Raven, sounding thoroughly irritated at whoever was disturbing her.

"Meditation not working?" he said. _Obviously not_, he thought, _or she would've sounded calmer._

Raven's eyes flew open and she turned to face Slade. She was clearly frightened, and of him, certainly; for she stood to back away. Slade had not expected her to be pleased to see him, but also had not expected Raven to back down from probable danger.

"Relax," Slade whispered, stepping closer to her, "I just need to deliver a message."

This prospect did not comfort Raven whatsoever. "How did you get in my room?" she demanded.

Slade laughed softly. "I've been able to get anywhere in this tower almost since the day I met you." _And I've had cameras here since day two._

Raven closed her eyes. "Look, I can recite your message as well as you can, Slade."

"Oh really. Why don't you, then?"

"I . . ." Raven started. Slade smirked. Of course she had been bluffing. He guessed that she tried to forget everything he or her father had ever said to her. Raven was really almost . . . cute when she was afraid.

Before Slade could realize what a strange thought that was, Raven asked, "Why are you doing this?"

"What other choice did I have?" Slade replied, surprised by this change of subject. Then he added, "But when you consider the fringe benefits, this job's not so bad, really."

"_Fringe benefits?_" Raven said incredulously. "Like what?"

Slade shrugged. "Oh, the powers, torturing your friends almost to the point of death . . . and seeing you on your birthday was definitely a sight for sore eyes."

The half demon girl's glare could have burned right through his mask, but Slade smiled to himself and continued, "Besides, I think I've rather gotten to know you better."

Raven blushed slightly, to his surprise. "Yeah, right."

There was a knock on the door. Slade internally cursed whatever Titan was the cause of this interruption, along with Robin for good measure. Slade bowed deeply to Raven, saying "I'll see you soon, my little gem."

**Raven**

Raven shuddered halfheartedly as she opened the door to Cyborg and Beast Boy, who wanted her to referee for Stank Ball, oblivious that the world would end the next day. Despite their pleading, Raven curtly declined the offer to observe possibly the most immature and masculine of sports ever invented.

Oddly, Raven slept well that night.

**Slade**

Slade dozed for less than an hour. But one of the few perks of being dead was that sleep was unnecessary. Slade played his conversation with Raven over in his head. He thought of his life, his death, the family he had lost and not thought about in a long time. On a more evil note, he wished he could have killed Robin personally before the world's end.

On the day of the end of the world the sun shone brightly and the birds sang happily. Everyone in Jump was happy. It was just one of those days when people woke up on the right side of the bed and decided to take the day off to spend time with their grandkids, or ate a huge breakfast and then discovered they had lost weight. Almost everyone, that is.

Sunset came early. Jump citizens wondered why the sun had gone dark at two pm. Little did they know that the Titans were unconscious on the ground by their T shaped tower and the Messenger and the Portal were on their way to bring about the return of Trigon.

"You're a fool," Raven said coldly to the tall man walking beside her. "Whatever Trigon promised you, he won't deliver."

Slade replied back just as frigidly. Then Raven started showing signs of her father. Slade could not help himself; he retaliated and was tackled by his own army of demons. With dark authority, the Portal ordered his release and stalked off to fulfill the prophecy.

_She's right._

_No. She can't be._

_She has to be. She's Trigon's daughter, so naturally she knows more about him than you. What are you going to do when Scath leaves you dead?_

_I have to get my payment. It's my only hope._

_Fine. It's your cremation._

What Slade had argued to the more foolish part of himself was true; Trigon did not deliver the payment. As much as he hated it, Slade helped the Teen Titans defeat the incarnation of evil, and then ran when they were celebrating.

That had been last year. Slade had hardly attacked the Titans since then. He had just done some messing around with Robin and Beast Boy's minds and stolen a few things. The Brotherhood of Evil had asked him to join, but Slade had turned them down, knowing their plan to take down an entire generation of so-called superheroes would ultimately fail.

The plans would not come. It was like everything had been done before. And besides, he did not really want to kill the Titans anymore . . . well, that wasn't really true. He didn't want to kill _all_ the Titans anymore. Raven was worth keeping alive.

**Raven**

Raven was awake, her eyes still closed. _Oh, Azar . . . What did I do last night?_

Let's see, Cyborg had said that for her 18th birthday she should go to an 18-and-over club, but Raven hadn't wanted to so they went the day before. _Happy birthday to me._

Alcohol. There had been alcohol at the club and . . . _Gods damn me. I have a hangover. No wonder I feel like I've been run over by a cement truck._

Thoroughly hating herself, Raven opened her eyes and saw herself. She started hyperventilating, thinking _No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening. It already happened._

At that moment Robin and Starfire burst into Raven's dark room. Robin said, "Raven, on the news, the Church of Blood's started up again and they worship . . ."

He stopped, taking in the glowing red symbols all over his friend's body, the mark of Scath on her forehead. Raven took some gulping breaths. She could barely hold back tears.

"Trigon," Starfire whispered.

**Slade**

The mastermind had fallen asleep at his computer. Again. He had a plan now, a really good (or should we say, evil) one.

Slade stood. He was wearing his mask and armor, more for possible inspiration than anything else. Something felt . . . off, what was it?

_You're getting old._

_Shut up. It's not that._

He trudged up some stairs to his bedroom, took off his mask, looked in the mirror for a second, and started to head out of the room. Then it hit him. Slade ran back to the mirror and stared at his reflection in shock. "Oh shit."

Slade snapped his fingers and a flame formed between them. "I didn't ask for this job back," he complained to the skull in the mirror.

**A.N: **Hope you liked it! Please review, because if it sucks I really will change it. Also, there may be some other pairings later on in this story. Somehow. Maybe. K, L8r.


	2. Loopholes

**A.N:** Hey you guys! Chapter 2 is finally here! I deleted the Author's Note because, well, it bugged me. Don't worry, I don't do that with real parts of the story :). That screwed up the review count. Oops.

This took me less time, but more editing than I expected, so I hope you **R&R** and enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Teen Titans or anything in DCU, but I do take credit for the young Brother Blood. (NOT the name, the character. When you read you'll figure it out. So go! Read! Review!)

**Slade**

_It just had to be him,_ Slade thought the instant he recovered from having been unexpectedly teleported to a gray room with bright yellow light shining down from the ceiling. The now cyborg Brother Blood stood at the other end of the room. There was someone standing beside him, a thin young man with brown hair wearing a robe similar to Blood's.

"Brother Blood. You did this to me?" said Slade. He and the former H.I.V.E headmaster had never gotten along. There were no old friendships in the way of Slade's anger towards the gray haired cyborg in front of him.

Blood smiled as he answered, "Yes, by the glorious power of Trigon I did. Oh, and it's _Father_ Blood now by the way. I've moved up in the church."

"He's the earthly head," put in the young man. Slade thought the rather cowardly looking man sounded like a suck up.

"How nice for you," said Slade sarcastically. "May I ask why you saw fit to deform me even more than you did yourself?"

Blood sighed. "I have some explaining to do, I see. You know, Slade, your problem is you keep your sights on the mortal world, with no thought of the afterlife, no thought of the honor it is to serve Trigon in the short time we have here."

"Your problem is you think yourself a damned holy man. What's the point?"

The young man looked startled. "Don't talk that way to-"

"That will do," said Father Blood, waving a hand at his yellow robed counterpart. "With the help of some old Scath Order spells I returned you to your . . . _demoted_ state. I simply want to make a deal with you. You see, the enlightened Church of Blood has realized that Trigon, though omniscient and omnipotent he may be, could require our help to return to this realm after being banished by his daughter. However, since his daughter does not wish to help him, maybe his grandchild will."

Slade's eye widened. "You mean Raven has a child?" _Oh, please no. _

"No. Not yet anyway. We of the Church decided to choose one of our congregation to father the next Gem."

"Sick, Blood," Slade said. Rape was a crime he could not tolerate. "But if the pastor is disabled, who's the chosen one? Him?" Slade pointed at the young man next to Father Blood.

A flash of annoyance crossed Father Blood's face. "Since I am 'disabled' as you put it, then we have chosen another from my line. This privileged young man next to me is my son, the new Brother Blood. Your task is to deliver Raven to him."

_You've got to be kidding me._ "Forget it. You don't seem to recall that I don't answer to Blood the father, Blood the son, or any Blood the Holy Ghost you have up your sleeve," Slade said angrily.

"Now you do," the new Brother Blood said, smirking. He raised a hand and Slade felt the mark of Scath being burned into his skull. He gritted his teeth to keep from showing some sign of pain through his mask. The young Blood continued, "As long as this mark is on you only I, my father, and the few higher in Trigon's ranks than us can free you from your bondage. The more time you take to capture Raven, the more difficult things will be for you. And believe me, you don't want that."

"Damn you," Slade growled.

"Now be gone," Father Blood ordered, and Slade felt himself sinking back to where he was summoned from.

_Well, this is just great. I'll have to think of a way out of this one._

_Good luck._

_Smart ass remarks will only distract me._

_Have it your way._

**Beast Boy**

In Titans Tower things were not going as well as they could. Robin started the tape recorder again and said to the hooded girl sitting across from him, "Okay, go over the whole thing, start to finish. It's important you don't leave anything out."

"Dude, we've done this six times already. Don't you think she's had enough?" Beast Boy said. He sat down next to Raven on the couch, thinking maybe it would provide some unspoken support. She just glared at him.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Beast Boy's right," Raven said. "Robin, my story's not going to change. I just woke up, opened my eyes, and the marks were there."

Robin leaned forward. "But you're absolutely sure you didn't hear anything, or see anyone unusual the night before. You didn't meet someone who asked a lot of questions?"

Raven stood. Her patience was tried. "Look. Robin. I'm done here. I just need to meditate on this." She glided out of the main room.

"Why'd you have to do that, dude?"

"Do what?"

"Get her all pissy at us. Now she probably won't come out of her room for days," Beast Boy said. _And after that she'll just talk about magicky crap I don't even pretend to get._

"I'm just getting the story, Beast Boy. That's all," Robin replied. He took his painfully old time tape recorder and prepared to leave.

"You don't have to take this so seriously," the green sixteen year old said.

Robin turned back to face him. "I don't have to take it _seriously?_ For all we know, Trigon's back!"

"Yeah, but we don't know!" Beast Boy argued. _You're losing here, dude . . ._

"It could be the end of the world. Maybe I want to be ready, unlike last time. Do you think it's going to be easy?" Those were the last things the Titans' leader said before he exited the room.

"Yeah?" Beast Boy said. "Well, I think _last time_ Slade said almost that exact same thing!"

_You are so stupid sometimes, you know that Garfield?_

A door slammed down the hall and Beast Boy couldn't tell whether it was Robin's or Raven's.

**Slade**

The mastermind paced his room, not feeling so brilliant at the moment. The pains of death took some getting used to. He felt weary for no reason at all. Slade stopped abruptly and glared at his reflection in the mirror. "I'm going to kill Blood if it's the last thing I do," he said to himself conversationally.

"Genius idea. But what are you going to do for the time being?"

"I could just ignore those two bastards and see what happens . . ."

"Resulting in your pain and ultimate destruction, yes, I can see where this is going."

Slade really hated himself at times like this. He looked at the empty eye socket of the skull in the mirror. _Disgusting. You can't deny you're a monster now._ "Wait."

"What?"

"In all his enlightenment the most _esteemed_ Father Blood forgot to tell me the rules to his little game . . ."

"Ah, now there's an idea."

"So there is nothing to prevent me doing what _I_ want with these powers, or telling Raven exactly what's going on so I can devise a plan. But will she listen?"

"Of course she will idiot. Today's her birthday. The girl was probably scared half to death by whatever her 'lover's' birthday greeting was. The only problem will be preventing her from telling the Titans."

Slade rolled his eye at the reflection it was still hard to believe was him. "Oh yes, that should be _no _problem at _all . . ._"

**Raven**

"Azarath Metrion Zinthos. Azarath Metrion Zinthos . . ."

Why was meditation so hard? It was _not _going to be the end of the world. Stuff like that didn't happen twice, did it? _Not if your life has a good screenwriter it doesn't._

Raven sighed and opened her eyes. Robin was just being stupid with the whole tape recorder thing, and even though Beast Boy was actually acting somewhat intelligent he wouldn't be much help in something like this. Cyborg was good with more down to earth matters and Starfire . . . if it couldn't be found on Tameran or in a teen magazine she was useless.

The problem was that no of them had ever really experienced Trigon before like she had. The other Titans didn't know what _true_ evil was. Robin and Beast Boy knew true insanity, that was undisputed . . . but Trigon wasn't just another villain and no one who hadn't worked for Trigon or seen what he'd done to places like Azarath could know. There was no one around who'd experienced that.

"Hello, birthday girl."

Hearing that voice, Raven was surprised, but not alarmed. She actually smiled a little. Now maybe she would find out what in Azar's name was going on here. _Maybe there is someone . . ._

**Beast Boy**

In the corner of Raven's ceiling the changeling reflected that being a fly on the wall only paid off when you saw something you wanted to know.

**A.N:** Don't know if you saw that coming or not. In case you've read the comics, know that this Brother Blood is _not_ and reincarnation of the old one, he's really his son. The guy you _used_ to this of as Brother Blood is _Father _Blood. That's how it works.

So review please! Feel free to tell me if anyone if OOC. L8r!


	3. Hearing Voices

**A.N:** Hola! Chapter 3 is here! There's still no action, but things will get more exciting soon! Just keep **R&R**ing. This chapter also has some hinted BBxTerra and BBxRae, if you squint. :) Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:** Believe me, I do not own Teen Titans, or Edgar Allen Poe's _The Raven._ I forgot to mention this before, but I also don't own the song _I'm Taking You With Me _by Relient K, where I got the title for this fic. Okay, no more. You can go read now.

**Beast Boy**

"Hello, birthday girl."

It took so much self control not to go down there and rip off Slade's little metal covered head Beast Boy thought he would explode. Somehow, he convinced himself to wait and see what happened. _I totally just imagined that smile. Raven's going to kick Slade's butt before he can blink._

"Slade. Why are you here?" Raven asked a little nervously as she landed lightly on the floor to face Slade.

_Okay, she's going to hit him in three . . ._

"You have no idea? Nothing's happened yet today, nothing unexpected?" Slade asked in return. Raven hesitated.

_Two . . ._

"Ah, there was something," Slade said. Had he just noticed her hesitation, or did he really know what had happened that morning?

_One!_

"What do you want?" The Goth girl crossed her arms, and looked up into Slade's mask with more irritation than anything else.

_Uh, Raven? Less talking more butt kicking, dude! Raven?_

"I'm going to assume you've already heard of the Church of Blood," Slade said, relaxing his stance a little now that he knew she probably would not outright attack him.

"The Church of Blood? When I lived in Azarath they tried to make a dimension portal and take us over. Robin and Starfire mentioned them this morning. . ."

"How did they know about them?" Slade demanded.

"I . . . I don't know. In all the confusion I forgot to ask how they knew," Raven said with slight embarrassment.

"Confusion over what?"

Raven looked at the floor. "I shouldn't even be talking to you."

_Yeah, Raven. You shouldn't. You should set off the alarm right now so I can come down there without looking like I was spying on you that much._

"Yet you are, so why don't you tell me your part of the story and I'll tell you mine?" Slade suggested. Beast Boy thought he sounded particularly evil. Not for any real reason, just that he was acting too, uh, normal-like toward Raven.

_Dude! Don't tell him anything! He's a bad guy, remember? Don't even listen! That's what Terra did and look how she . . . turned . . . out . . ._

"Well . . ." said Raven hesitantly.

Beast Boy tried to send telepathic messages to his friend by staring hard with his compound eyes. _Come on, Raven! Say no! Kick him out! You don't need whatever he's selling!_

_Raven?_

_Come on, Rae . . ._

_Just say no._

"Fine. I'll tell you."

**Raven**

She sighed and began her summary of the morning's events. "Okay, so last night I was out pretty late, so I didn't wake up very fast this morning. But when I did wake up there were markings all over me, the same ones _you_ burned on me last year. I guess I kind of . . . freaked out. Then Robin and Starfire came in and said the thing about the Church of Blood. They woke up Cyborg and Beast Boy, but nobody could do anything about the marks. Then, about five minutes later, they just disappeared. Robin started freaking _interrogating _me so I came in here. That's it."

Raven considered how she had ended the story. Was it wise to let Slade know she was angry at Robin? He might use that for something. _Use it for what? You don't even know what tricks he has up his sleeve._

The voice of Brave in her head said, _If he even has any tricks up his sleeve. I say we go for it!_

_Remember what happened to Terra, _said the small voice of Timid.

_Who cares? We are so much smarter and tougher than her, _snapped Brave.

_What are we going for? Listening to him tell his half of the story? We already agreed to that. Just be quiet and listen, _said Knowledge, silencing all the other voices.

Raven tuned into Slade, who had just started talking. He said, "That was less than what I expected to happen."

"Oh, so sorry to bore you. What do you do that was so exciting?"

"Not so much exciting as illuminating," Slade replied. "I was summoned by the now _Father_ Blood, former headmaster of the HIVE Academy. He wants me to help him in his plot to assist Trigon in returning to this dimension by delivering you to his son, the new Brother Blood."

Raven was slightly confused by this. "They're going to do what Trigon himself already tried and failed at doing?" _I never thought they were brilliant, but that's kind of a new low for them._

Slade shook his head. "Not quite. They intend to use Trigon's old plan, but with his grandchild."

It took a second for this to sink in. "You mean Brother Blood wants to . . . oh gods." She sat down on the edge of her bed. Raven felt stupid for reacting like this, but somehow it had never occurred to her that a quarter-demon portal could work as well as a half-demon one or that anyone would make a plan centering on raping her.

She was aware of Slade seating himself next to her, but did not look at him. "'And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming . . .'"

"'And the lamplight over him streaming spills his shadow on the floor.'" said Slade softly.

Raven looked up at him in surprise. "You read Edgar Allen Poe?"

Slade nodded. "Yes, but I don't think now is the time to discuss that. I came here to ask you if you would like any help."

"Help? But-hey, did you agree to help Blood or not?"

"Not."

"Then why does he seem to expect your help?" Raven asked. She was definitely getting his story cleaned up before she decided anything else.

"I see I'm not going to get anything past you, Raven. In exchange for my help Blood gave me my old powers back, along with . . . taking something from me."

"Taking what?"

Raven's eyes widened as Slade grabbed her by the wrist and held her hand against the left side of his chest. "Anything missing?" Slade asked in a voice that was suddenly harsh.

She stared him in the eye for a second, trying to figure out what he was doing. Then she realized why he was doing this. "A heartbeat," Raven whispered.

Slade released her. "Exactly, my dear. So do you see my motive to help you?"

Raven nodded.

_Don't trust him, he'll turn on us, _said Fear.

_He has more reason to help than to hurt us, _reasoned Knowledge.

_If you would just help Trigon and fulfill our destiny this wouldn't be a problem, _said Rage.

_SHUT UP!_ shouted all the other voices in unison. Rage slinked into the background to wait for another opening.

_Aw, come on Raven, _Happy said. _How bad can it be? Maybe he can help us get out of this mess, and he is pretty hot . . ._

Raven saw Love nod in agreement and shut off the voices quickly before things could get totally insane in her head.

She stood, and Slade did the same, looking at her as if for an answer. Raven said, "I accept your help, Slade."

Slade nodded. "There is one condition," he added. "You may not, for any reason, tell your friends about this."

Raven thought about it, but only for a second. The other Titans would probably find out on their own if she didn't tell them. "Fine. But I have a condition for you."

"And what is that?"

"You can't attack the Titans while we're, um, allies," Raven said, leaving no room for argument in her tone. After a pause, Slade nodded again.

"Then we have a deal," he said, holding out his hand to shake on it. They shook hands, Raven arguing to herself that the tingling she felt when they touched was completely imaginary.

The alarm went off. Raven glanced at her door, and Slade rolled his eye. "I'll be seeing you soon," he said, and to Raven's surprise jumped out the window. It wasn't until the middle of the Titans' battle with Mad Mod that she realized that with his new powers, Slade could fly.

**A.N:** Hey, I hoped you liked that! It's a little shorter than the last chapter, but it's still important. Review please!


	4. Lamech

**Sorry this took so long! Please review!**

**I don't own anything. It makes me sad.**

**Beast Boy**

"I'm telling you Cy! Something's up with her," Beast Boy said, pacing as Cyborg was working on the T-car's engine.

"Huh?"

"Dude, were you paying attention?"

"Not really" Cyborg said. He stepped back from his baby and into Beast Boy's ticked off stare.

"Ok! So Raven's been in here room like every single moment of her life for the past three days, right?"

"Right, but that's kind of nor-"

"And she's all jumpy and kind of spaced out, _right_?"

"Yeah."

Beast Boy hopped onto one of the steps. "Soooo . . .I'm pretty sure something's up with her, dude."

Cyborg looked skeptical. "How sure is pretty sure, man?"

The green teenager scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. "Like I spied on here sure . . ."

"What? Man!"

"No! Cyborg, Raven made this deal with Slade, alright? Something to do with those freaky Trigon symbols that showed up on her birthday and she said she wouldn't tell us and Slade acted like all nice to her most of the time and-"

"You think he going to lie and trick Rae into doing something for him?"

"Yeah! You gotta believe me, dude!" Beast Boy insisted. "It's really freaking me out!"

"Beast Boy, are you sure Raven would fall for something like that?" Cyborg asked. "I mean, her and Terra are like completely different people." He stopped and appeared to think about it. "But Raven was kind of a wreck that day."

"Yeah, see?" Beast Boy said.

"Maybe if we just asked her, B. She might be freaked out too," Cyborg said. "But don't tell Robin."

Beast Boy knocked on his head, making a hollow sound. "Uh, dude? I have a brain. Duh. Let's go find Raven."

**Slade**

"Any particular reason I'm here Blood?" Slade asked, tapping on the cyborg's large desk in front of him.

Father Blood looked at Slade serenely, as if he had all the time in the world. It was infuriating, but Slade could play along. Gratification would come in the long term. "As a matter of fact, there is," Blood said.

He paused. Slade waited, and the pause went on . . . and on. _What is wrong with him?_ Slade examined the office. It had a stone, domed celing and a rather demonic looking rug. After losing HIVE, Father Blood had gone into full Holy Man-mode.

The most esteemed head of the church deemed fit to continue. "I would like to remind you, Slade, that you have a month. If you slack off you will die. Also, you cannot find anyone human to retrieve your flesh and blood, because I am the shepherd of Trigon's flock here on Earth. You had better get this done right because no technology, Book of Lamech, or spell can save you."

"I'll try to remember that," Slade said. _Interesting._

**Raven**

"Have you ever heard of the Book of Lamech?"

Raven jumped. "Yes. Why? You could knock?"

"On the window?" Slade asked in that annoying fake-innocent way of his. "Blood mentioned it in passing. I thought it might be important."

A copy of the Book of Lamech zipped into Raven's hand. She looked at it. She remembered it had fairly difficult spells, was old (but not ancient), and... "Slade, you're a genius, much as I hate to admit it."

"Thank you?"

"This book has the chant to open the gateway between demensions, kind of the hallway of the universe. Basically everything unusual and dark gets stuck out in Lamech's Realm eventually," Raven explained. This was elementary knowledge on Azarath.

"So you think there's something there to get rid of the Bloods and their motley collection of demonic attributes?" Slade said, looking interested.

Raven flipped through the Book in excitement. "And the chant's not even that hard..."

"So we could go there now."

Raven snapped back to reality. "Now?"

Slade shrugged. "Why not?"

"Um, okay," she said uncertainly.

_You're not getting along with your friends, you're stressed, and you could end this today. No brainer. Do it, _Brave said.

"Grab my hand so we're, um, you know, connected," Raven said. It was completely stupid that touching his hand should be a distraction at all. She closed her eyes and began the spell.

**Cyborg**

"Hey Raven, we were ... uh, Raven?" Cyborg said. "That's weird. I know I heard her in here a second ago."

"Dude, look!"

"That better be good."

"It's like a traveling spell thingie!" Beast Boy said, holding up a thick book. "You-you don't think she...?"

"No..."

The two boys looked at each other nervously. Cyborg said, "I think we should tell Robin now."

**Another chapter done! You can probably guess what happens next. Please, please, please review. I'll take suggestions for any creepy stuff for Lamech's Realm if someone just had a little lightbulb appear above their head.**

**See ya!**


	5. Claws

**A.N.** Hey guys! Don't shoot me for being so late! Please review. puh-leeze

**The Story So Far...** The Teen Titans defeat Trigon. Yay! French toast! A year passes and the Church of Blood (led by the renamed Father Blood and his son) want to bring Trigon again to Earth, using Raven's daughter. Blood returns Slade to his skeletal state and grants him his old powers, as long as he delivers Raven to the Church as a concubine. A few problems: Slade would rather have Raven all to himself, the two have teamed up, and Cyborg and Beast Boy are catching on! Read the chapter to find out what happens next!

**Disclaimer: **Dont' own Teen Titans. Boo hoo hoo. Do own the monster. The pit was inspired by Edgar Allen Poe's _The Pit and the Pendulum_.

**Slade**

The fog was so thick he could barely see his left hand when he held it up two feet from his face. The ground was so completely solid and flat it was actually unsettling. He felt Raven shiver slightly and kept a firm hold on her hand. She would probably be less disoriented than he was. "Any ideas?"

"I..."

Maybe she was just as lost as he was. "Have you been here before?"

"Actually, um," Raven started, then got defensive. "No. Why? Have _you _been here before?"

"No..." Slade said. "But you were the one with all the supernatural information." _This is so stupid. _

"That doesn't im- did you see that?"

"What?"

"That!"

"I have no idea what you are talking about," Slade replied. She must be pointing at something.

Raven gave an exasperated sigh. "The thing over- never mind. Let's just go... this way."

Slade let her lead him in a random direction. _Bad idea, Slade._

_What?_

_Coming here. You'll never get back._

The fog started to shift and clear, revealing a gray sky and flat dark gray... tiles? which led up to a huge pit. He could see that it was filled what seemed to be three quarters of the way up with unfathomable water. "Anything about this in your books?"

"No," Raven said. She suddenly released his hand.

_Do you even realize how pathetic you are with her?_

_Have you noticed she's a Teen Titan? And that at any given time she could kill me with that dark magic of hers?_

His internal bickering was suddenly interupted by a shifting not underwater in the pit, but from the tiles under Slade's feet.

**Robin**

"What??"

"Yeah, man. We think she might be gone."

"Then how do we get there? Did she leave any signs of struggle? Or clues? Anything!" How could another member of his team have been tricked by Slade? How could Raven, who could withstand demons, have fallen prey to the voice that haunted his nightmares?

"Friend Robin! We know you are deeply disturbed by even the mention of Slade, but have you all forgotten that Raven is very smart and would not be easily fooled?" Starfire asked indignantly.

Beast Boy looked miserable for once. Cyborg said, "Look Star, it's not really how smart she is, it's just that Rae can be kind of, you know, naive. Like, how she fell for that Malchior guy. Not that I'm saying it's like that now, but... we gotta make sure Raven's safe."

**Raven**

The oddly shaped tiles bulged and cracked beneath her. Raven flew six feet off the ground to get a view of what was happening. Slade seemed to remember he could fly and did the same. She turned toward him. "What do you-"

She was interupted by the churning tiles giving way to a huge creature. It was massive, with dripping fangs and talons. It had no eyes, but only soft sockets. The torso was covered in armor-like scales. The monster lunged for Raven with a deadly hand and she created a shield with her soul self. She gaped as a moldy claw sliced right through the dark enery.

The pain ripped into her innermost being and Raven barely held back a scream. She dodged the claws by an inch, feeling light headed and still in excruciating pain. The blackness seeped slowly, agonizingly, back into her body. The monster began again to attack and Raven knew she did not have the strength to resist. Soon it would be over.

A flash of fire knocked her attacker off course. _Slade! _Her unlikely rescuer launched a barrage of flame at the creature's tender eye sockets. It let out a scream like a dog whistle and grabbed blindly, catching Slade in a huge hand. He sent fire through the monster's arm and into it's heart. It dropped to its knees and began to sink into the gray tiles, throwing Slade into the pit as it descended.

Raven regained mobility as she saw Slade dragged under the water by scores of shadowy hands.

**Slade**

That was the coldest thing by far he had ever felt.

_"I have to go. We'll talk more when I get back."_

Not the water, those fingers.

_His vision was red. It seemed too dark to be blood. There was a scream. It couldn't be Addie. She was the one who shot him, right?_

Too bad he didn't need to breathe. It would have been bliss to die.

_A huge weight crushing his chest. The heat was so great it felt rather cold. He lost sight of that blond hair last. This wasn't supposed to happen. How could an idiot like her regain control?_

The water (was it water?) trickled into his mask. How could he have lost conciousness when he was dead?

**A.N. **Hope you liked it! Please review. Constructive criticism is welcome.


	6. Just You and Me

**A.N. **Hey, guys! I'm back! So, so sorry this took so long. Please read, review, and enjoy chapter 6!

**Disclaimer: **Come on, you must know by now that none of us own Teen Titans. Also, I don't own the two Susan Kay quotes (from the amazing novel _Phantom_) that I used.

**The Story So Far: **The Church of Blood wants to bring Trigon to power through a child of Raven and the new Brother Blood. They sent Slade to retrieve her, but he formed an alliance with Raven against Blood, even though it could cost him the chance to get his life back. Raven and Slade are currently in Lamech's Realm (sort of a prison/home to inter-dimensional creatures). Rae's soul self was damaged in a battle. Slade saved her, but is being pulled into a vast pit. Meanwhile, Cyborg and Beast Boy discovered Raven and Slade's partnership and informed Robin and Starfire. The team can't do anything about it, for now...

**Raven**

"Slade?!" Raven shouted after the masked man as he disappeared beneath the pit's opaque water. She landed near the edge unsteadily. How had that... freak show _thing _sapped her power like that?

She doubted she could dive in and save Slade. Whatever had pulled him down could easily take her out in this condition. Hopefully, because he was already dead, Slade would be okay. Well, relatively. Besides the whole _being dead_ problem. Even if he wasn't okay, that wasn't so bad because he _was _evil, right? Not like Raven didn't _want _him to be alright, but-

"Concentrate," Raven muttered to herself. She shuddered. The pit's aura infected the area around it with a sense of depression and decay. She didn't know what it was, but Raven sensed she _had_ to get Slade out of that thing. About half of the voices in her head agreed. That was good enough.

Raven closed her eyes and levitated into meditation position. "Azarth Metrion Zinthos," she chanted. It cleared her mind almost immediately, to her surprise. "Azarian Metrion Zinthos. Azarth... Metrion...

_Zinthos..."_

The chant, which seemed to work more quickly by far in Lamech's Realm, was ingrained into her heart, her brain, her body, and finally the jewel in her forehead. Raven felt her soul self spreading out like radar into the pit, convulsing at first touch with the darkness, but then meshing with it and healing and growing. She could no longer feel her body other than a faint shadow in the back of her mind.

_Beyond the edge there is no pain..._

It was a bit disconcerting to be so in tune with this soul sucking mass.

_Beyond the edge you will be reborn in the glory of darkness..._

Raven found him back on the edge and locked him into a blank space. She entered after him and saw his surprise.

"What...just happened?" Slade asked, uncharacteristically confused. Somehow his mask had come off and his skeleton face was revealed. He was so disoriented he hadn't really noticed yet that it was on the floor/ground by his feet.

"I guess I saved you," Raven said. But then she sensed it: she hadn't yet, and she could. Here in this supposedly blank space she could just reach out and take it back. Raven just closed her eyes and told the darkness what she wanted and there it was: her father's vault.

It would be easy to get in when she was the override code.

"Hey, Slade," Raven said with a weird sort of calm. This much power for so long was making her slightly light headed.

"Yes?" He replied, in a much more normal tone than when he had spoken before.

"Do you want your life back?"

"I'd think that would be obvious, but yes."

Raven reached out and opened the the door in her mind. Something dived out of the writhing shadows and she heard Slade start, back in the blank space.

She exited the vault quickly. Being in two places at once was difficult, three nearly impossible.

Slade was looking at her with and unfathomable expression on his face.That face was handsome enough that Raven (guiltily) wished she had seen it sooner. But there really wasn't time to analyze it before he kissed her.

**Slade**

_You are an idiot._

_Hm? Why would you say that?_

_You realize you're kissing a Teen Titan._

_Who happens to be responding, did you notice?_

_Of course I did. Still, you're kissing a-_

_More of making out with, now._

_Fine. That's _worse.

_"Worse" is not a word I would use to describe it._

He felt Raven pull away and really hoped she would not disintigrate him. Though that seemed unlikely considering the events of the last five minutes and the fact that she was..._fading away_ and her forehead was bleeding where that red jewel used to be and her mouth was forming words he couldn't hear and then...

She was gone and he was standing by the edge of the pit. He was alone, somehow. _Again._

He picked up his mask, which he noticed was on the ground/tile thing beneath his feet.

_This is a problem._

_No really._

**A.N. **So there is is. Now go review. Again, I apologize for taking a really long time to update.


	7. Metal Boxes

**A.N. **Hey, no school today so I'm back with chapter 7! Just a head's up, I'm not doing The Story So Far anymore, since I'm updating more often. Anyway, this one is longer. **R&R please!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Teen Titans, or the Church of Blood. I do own the three songs used in this chapter and the Train of Thought . Now read.

**Slade**

They had her. It was the only explanation. There was no sign the Church of Blood had been there, but something of Raven's had been left behind. Her red gemstone was lying, bloodied, on the tiles.

Slade knelt and inspected it. He held it close to his mask taking in every detail. It yielded nothing.

_Well, you failed._

_Not yet._

_Blood has Raven and you don't know where they are. This gem must be connected to her powers. You could be too late already._

_No. Raven wouldn't go down that easily. I know from experience._

_So what? This still doesn't explain how you'll turn this around._

_It means I have time. I could get a map, or directions, weapons, food, if I found a town somewhere around here._

"Next stop: nearest town!"

Slade turned toward the extremely convenient sound to his right. An old man in a blue uniform with a wispy beard was yelling out the door of a passenger car to a train that had not been there seconds before.

_What do I have to lose?_

_Your life. For the third time._

"This train is headed for town?" inquired Slade to the old man.

"Yes, sir. Hop aboard!" said the man with agonizing cheerfulness.

Slade took a seat three rows from the door. There was one other passenger huddled under a red blanket in the back row. He or she sing-song mumbled, "Fly, fly, fly your plane harshly up the airway. Scarily, scarily, scarily, scarily existence is but a nightmare."

_Yes. Well, then..._

"So," began the old man. "Why you wearin' so much metal? You some kinda knight?"

"No."

"You savin' a damsel in distress?"

"Sort of."

"Then that there makes you a knight."

Slade rolled his eye. "How did the train know to stop back there?"

"Well, this here's the train of thought." The man lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "It reads minds."

From the back drifted, "Run, run, run my car unfeelingly across the field. Warily, warily, warily, sparingly death is just hallucination."

Slade felt the need to crush the deranged singer's skull.

_Apparantly, I do care this much for Raven._

"Drive, drive, drive our bike sweetly through the station..."

**Raven**

Raven's indigo eyes blinked open slowly, then closed again. After a few seconds her subconscious jerked her awake. And she looked down, down, down. _Azar...What happened to me?_

She was suspended in the middle of what resembled a dungeon. The only light came from the crack between the iron door and grimy cement floor, which was dizzyingly far away.

The Church of Blood (who else could it be?) had hung Raven up the old fashioned way with massive cuffs and chains. Her hands were forced together above her head. Her fingers were so weak she could barely reach up to touch the chain attached to the ceiling. The cuffs around Raven's ankles were connected to another chain that led to the floor. The links were so heavy and chains so taut that she could barely squirm.

_How long was I out?_

It didn't matter. With just an "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" the restraints would be gone and Raven could fly or teleport far enough away from wherever she was.

"Hello, Raven," said Father Blood's voice. Raven looked but could find no source.

_Must be an intercom or something._

"What do you want?" she demanded. Her voice cracked. When had she last had water? Her tongue felt like sandpaper.

"Now, now. We mustn't be impatient." His tone suggested that she was asking when a movie would start or something equally trivial. Raven's anger gave her voice new strength.

"I know what you want. You want me to sleep with your son so my kid could help you take over the world from Trigon."

"Very good."

"I won't do it."

"We hardly need your approval."

Raven shuddered, and then it hit her. Blood was right. The jewel in her head was gone. Her access to her powers had been cut off.

"Where am I?" Raven asked. She had to come up with some sort of escape. Fast.

"Still in Lamech's Realm. That's all you need to know. Well, make yourself at home. You'll get water tomorrow if you're a good girl."

He was gone. Wonderful. Raven snapped. "_What could I possibly do?!_" she screamed.

**A.N. **Hope you like it! Now go review!


	8. Diligo Nos, Abbas

**A.N. **Woo, chapter 8! This is an all Raven chapter, and the next one (or possible next two) will be all Slade. Wrote this all in one night at my grandma's house, just like old times. Hope you like it, but I won't know if you don't review! So please **R & R! **

**Disclaimer: **I am sorely afraid I shall never own Teen Titans. The new Brother Blood is pretty much mine, but loosely based off of Sebastian Blood from the comics.

**Raven**

The were all hovering in a circle with legs crossed and eyes closed: meditation position. So normal. When she stepped in the middle, all eyes flew open. Some gasped, including the real Raven. All the versions of herself that surrounded her were so healthy looking compared to her, even though she had only been locked up for a few days at most. It was hard to tell how long she had hung from the ceiling in chains. The dark, windowless dungeon was the same morning, noon, and night.

"Hi," began Raven, but was quickly cut off.

"We've already decided," said Brave.

"W-what?"

"We're getting out of here today. We know how, you know how," continued the green-clad girl. The Ravens nodded and stood. They each walked a few steps closer to Raven, making her feel uncharacteristically claustrophobic.

"Listen to me. There is no way out," Raven said. She closed her eyes so as not to see the faces that were identical to hers. _Except they're beautiful, _she thought. _The normal me looks great compared to the disgusting, stupid concubine I've become. I make even ugly demon spawn look beautiful..._

"Stop it, stop it, stop it!" yelled Happy. "Don't think that way! Don't talk that way! And this escape plan is terrible!"

"It has its pros and cons," interjected Knowledge.

"I don't..." started Timid, but she trailed off and shrank back from the group.

"Who came up with this?" Raven demanded. "And what's this plan?"

"Brave and Rage mostly came up with the idea," Knowledge admitted. "Though I reviewed it, of course."

The other Ravens parted for the red cloaked, red eyed figure of Rage. Raven almost growled at her, but caught herself. If Rage could infect her that easily she must have power through the support of the others.

"The plan is simple," Rage said. "When those two guards bumped the loudspeaker button earlier we heard that Father Blood will be gone for a while, leaving his son in charge. Since Brother Blood has less training and no powers that we know of, this will be easier."

"Just get to the point."

"We don't _entirely _need that gem to channel and balance our power. There's always backup in our DNA. We are half demon, and no one can take that away from us. Call upon every vengeful, bloodthirsty, angry feeling inside you and use Trigon's legacy to destroy the Church of Blood."

Raven stood shocked for a second, but quickly got over it. "No. No! How could you-we- How could I think of something like that? Trigon will take me over the second I tap into his power!"

Knowledge shook her head. "Our physical body is too weak. It would not be able to contain him or serve as a portal in this state."

"How are you all siding with Rage?! She's with Trigon! She's the inner daddy's-little-girl! She doesn't care about us, just him!" Raven shouted. If her powers had been functioning any surrounding landscape would have been in danger of spontaneous combustion.

"Raven," said Brave. "This could be our only chance of escape. We have to risk it. It's not just our safety. It's the world's future."

"What about Slade?" ventured Timid. When the group turned toward her the small, teary girl cowered, but continued. "I mean, he's still out there. Maybe he'll..."

"He'll what? Rescue us?" demanded Rage. "Of all the-"

"We can take care of ourselves," said Brave stubbornly.

"Just because he kissed us doesn't mean he actually cares about us," Knowledge said more gently. "We had just saved his flesh and blood. It was an illogical reaction."

Love spoke up. "Come on, we're an empath. We know there's more to him than we thought before. I think Slade could pull through."

"Don't you get into this," snarled Rage.

"What's it going to be, Rae?" said Brave.

Raven took a deep breath. She had thought over the decision while the others were bickering. She wanted to believe in Slade, for some completely unfounded reason, but he was a super villain for Azar's sake. She would rather depend on her own weakness to keep Trigon out of her for the time being than to place all hope on a man she so many reasons to hate and distrust. "We're breaking out."

Raven opened her eyes to darkness and began immediately searching inward. She could faintly hear the twilight chants of the Church of Blood as they readied their dark souls for the night.

_Cruor, incendia, nex, palma_

Raven forced herself to look at the end of the world, and see its beauty. She looked on the burning city, housing Trigon in all his majesty.

_O, duodeviginti diabolus pluo nos per vestri bona_

She felt her father's legacy in her blood, and drank in her hatred of it, her deeply buried hatred of herself. It fed the black void growing within.

_Permissum nos impleo vestri cupido pro vox_

It began to seep out of her.

_Permissum nos nutritor vestri ieiunium pro malum_

_Permissum nos operor vestri vota pro umquam quod umquam_

At first the pain was unbearable. For some reason Raven found herself calling, "Daddy!"

_Diligo nos, abbas_

_Ut vestri filia, vestri properitas_

As if he of all people would make her feel better, as his power consumed her.

_Diligo nos, vinco_

_Ut vestri mancipium, vestri meretricis_

A moan escaped her lips as a dark wave caressed her skin, but though she was terrified it was not a sound of fear. While her heart was racing and her mind told her to fight the evil coming on, she was already using all her energy to keep from writhing in ecstasy. All she wanted was more of this power's horrible sensation. Oh gods, nothing could be better than this unexplainable pleasure.

But too soon is was over. The familiar red haze filled her vision and dark energy snapped Raven's chains and blasted the cell door off its hinges. She landed lightly on the ground and walked out of the metal box that had been her home. The cell door was set lightly on the ground. The congregation had scurried off to bed after the early evening chants. Raven walked down the halls toward the sleeping quarters, toward her prey, while the walls curdled silently around her.

There was an ornate set of doors close down the hall. They must lead to the room of one of the Bloods. Raven sneered in satisfaction. Soon the bloodbath would begin, and the orchestrators of her capture would be the first to die.

Suddenly the doors she had been but a few steps away from seemed to spin. Her body was far too heavy to support itself and the red film faded from her eyes. All the power, the darkness, was gone. _What...? _Raven's knees buckled. She sank to the cold sandstone floor, fighting to remain conscious. Raven could not have gotten up if she somehow wanted to more desperately than she did at that moment.

It clicked. Rage. She knew Raven's physical body was too weak at this point to hold all the power of a demon. Rage had always belonged to Trigon, and the surest way to get Trigon to this world was through Father Blood's plan.

The doors opened and Brother Blood appeared. He appeared surprised at first, then smiled and bent down next to Raven. Her eyes widened (the most motion she was capable of) and she wanted to scream, but could not. Brother Blood lifted her thin form up and carried her into his huge room, placing her gently on the bed. He then walked back to the doors and locked them. This time Raven managed to let out a hoarse "No..."

Brother Blood sat next to her on the bed and smiled disarmingly. The bedspread was a light gold, and the walls were a creamy white color with gold and silver trim. The domed ceilings and large light fixtures made the room look open and with the padded furniture it rather resembled an old private library. Without books.

"I've been waiting for you for a while now, Raven," said Blood. He was dressed in modern clothes: khakis and a light yellow polo shirt. "It must be so amazing to be the daughter of the eighth devil himself. You don't appreciate how blessed you are, my little gem."

Slade had called her that when he was Trigon's Messenger. Raven had been frightened at first, then tried to act annoyed. The nickname had made her feel slightly shivery and odd inside, but Raven secretly liked it. This caused her to worry about her mental health.

When Brother Blood called her his little gem, Raven wanted to gouge his eyes out.

Blood stroked her hair, then rolled her over onto her back, still kind of smiling. Sheer horror brought Raven some semblance of strength in her muscles and she tried to push him off as he moved her more to the middle of the unnecessarily large bed. He chuckled and used one arm to cease her pathetic struggle, while the other hand began to remove her tattered clothes. Then he was everywhere she didn't want him to be.

**A.N. **Need feedback. The chant is in Latin. Please review. I'm sure some of you hate me right now, but the story's not over yet!


	9. Out On The Town

**A.N. **Alright, so this chapter is all Slade, since Raven got a chapter all to herself last time. Please read and review!

**Disclaimer: **I definitely do not own Teen Titans. Though I wish I did.

**Slade**

The train of thought did not stop for about five hours. By that time Slade was gripping the arms of his seat to keep from murdering the lunatic in the back of the train car. The conductor kept asking idiotic questions like "So, where you come from do they have bus stops? 'Cause I've heard about them there bus stops, but I don't think they're real."

They stopped by a sign that said _Welcome to Lenore. Please turn back. _

"Looks like my stop," muttered Slade. He couldn't get out of that demented train fast enough.

Lenore was a very unusual town. It looked like a cross between an old Western and a Japanese village. Pagoda-like buildings held cantinas, Ye Old General Store sold supplies for planting a memory garden for one's ancestors, and Satsuki's bought, sold, and rented out books and DVDs. Wanted posters for criminals both human and supernatural covered the walls like coats of paint.

Slade assessed his surroundings and headed for the cantina, a good place to find information in any culture or adventure movie. On the outside it looked like a place where monks would meditate, if not for the giant sign reading CANTINA. On the inside it was an old-Western-worthy seedy bar. With a few exceptions .

Vampires. Assassins. Para-dimensional beings. Bounty hunters. Drunks. Ghosts. Legit knights in shining armor. Mercenaries. Slutty looking bar wenches. Gang members. A suspicious looking green cube that kept getting closer to Slade every time he looked away.

_This is why I like to stay on Earth._

_Think of it as a vacation._

_Like that'll work._

_. . ._

_Alright, I'll stop talking. See how long you can go on without me._

_Thanks._

Slade was interrupted from his one-person argument by a shove from the side. He gave the fool responsible a glare, which seemed to surprise said fool. Slade was also surprised when he had to look three feet up to inflict the glare.

_Maybe that was a bad idea._

_For the record you lasted about three seconds._

_Shut up._

"Well, what do you know, a new guy." rumbled the man...thing beside Slade, who was at least nine and a half feet tall. "I think you don't know what you're doing here, new guy."

"I think you should go about your normal business," replied Slade. He started to walk away, but was stopped by a shove in the back. Even on his guard, Slade stumbled into the bar.

_He's strong._

_You think?_

"You really shouldn't have said that," boomed the Slade's assaulter.

"You really shouldn't have done that." Slade knew he should not get into a bar fight to start off his hopefully short stay in Lenore, but against his better judgment he wanted to.

He dodged the first swing easily. The man was not as fast as he was strong. Slade recognized that speed might be his biggest advantage, but greater intelligence was usually on his side as well. After dodged three more punches and a bar stool, Slade quickly landed blows under his opponent's ribs and on the side of his neck.

The giant roared. The red and black tattoos covering his visible body bulged and some...shifted? He slammed a table down on where Slade had been a tenth of a second before, only to feel a sharp pain in the back of his skull.

The less experienced occupants of the cantina gave collective a gasp as a chair leg was shoved into the back of the huge man's shaved head and out through his mouth. The battle hardened customers either paid no attention or clapped. One sauntered up to Slade and held out an envelope.

Slade glanced at it. "What's this?

The man chuckled and tipped his fedora to Slade. "Your reward. Basco had a price on his head."

Slade smiled under his mask as he took the envelope from the small, stocky man. "How high of a price?"

"Three hundred grand. Enjoy your stay in Lenore."

**A.N. **I personally kind of like Lenore, but have no idea if you, the readers, do. So please submit feedback! Reviews are much appreciated.


	10. Hark the Herald

**Beast Boy**

"You wanted to see me?" asked the Herald.

Beast Boy, half asleep on the far side of the roof of Titans Tower, stood up strait. "Dude! I called like two hours ago! I thought your horn was like a teleporter thingy!"

The Herald crossed his arms across his lean chest, looking offended. "My horn opens portals through space. And I had things to do."

Beast Boy sighed, then said, "I need you to do me a favor."

The Herald looked skeptical. "What kind of favor do you call in at three a.m.?"

The green Titan hurriedly picked up the massive ancient book by his feet. He opened to a parchment page he had marked earlier with a lime green post-it note. "Can you get me in there?"

The Herald squinted at the page in the dark. "Lamech's Realm? Yeah, I can do that. You want to tell me why?"

"I need to rescue someone."

"Alone?"

"My friends think she can rescue herself."

The Herald nodded, then held out an item that had been clipped to his belt. Beast Boy saw that it looked like a smaller version of the Titans communicator, but in dark blue with an icon of a horn on the front.

"Call me when you want to come back," said the Herald. "The normal communicators don't work between dimensions. Bumblebee helped me figure these out."

"Thanks, dude. I totally owe you. Like seven times."

"Yeah. You do. Ready?"

"Ready."

**Raven**

The new cell was grimier and darker, but at least Raven wasn't chained to the ceiling. In fact, she was now so weak that it was not necessary for her to be chained at all. She knew she hadn't been starved long enough to grow so thin and sickly. Taking the jewel out of Raven's forehead had a more serious result than anyone could have anticipated.

Not that it mattered. Brother Blood had gotten what he wanted. Now Raven had found it had to be done _again _, because _officially _it hadn't happened yet. Only Brother Blood and two of his most trusted guards knew what had been done.

Raven hated them all. She hated her very existence. She hated the clothes a kitchen maid had donated to replace her ripped-to-shreds old ones. She hated her friends for not rescuing her and she hated Slade even more for kissing her and _then _not rescuing her. She had nothing left.

_You have us, _came the whispers of those other aspects of her.

_What could you possibly do?_

_Come in and see._

**Slade**

Night three in a Lenorian hotel and days of alternately searching and taking bounties on demons or rogue vampire accountants and still no real results. No one knew where the Church of Blood was located.

Slade kept trying to tell himself it wasn't worth it, but what did he have in his own dimension? Robots? And career as a super villain that didn't do anything but feed his own misery as well as everyone else's? Now for the first time in years he had an actual mission to carry out that he had set himself to. The end of the world? Stopping that kept him alive. The apprentices? Plans with dead ends to keep himself from changing his ways.

Raven was something else entirely. He wasn't ready to give up on whatever that _something else _was quite yet.

_Besides, Lenore is my kind of town, _Slade thought as he skimmed over a newspaper in his hotel room. Perhaps he should start over here, buy an apartment, make a living as a bounty hunter or mercenary. There were challenges here unlike any back on Earth. He paced as he read, a habit that could easily result in tripping.

The orange and black mask lay on a chair in a corner, next to the black suit and gear. Slade was dressed in a black T-shirt and dark gray jeans he had purchased on Day Two in Lenore, when he had realized finding Raven wouldn't be easy.

For some reason Slade felt compelled to look at the long mirror on the dark brown bathroom door, which was not something that happened often. It was not his own reflection he saw, but that of...Raven?

It had to be Raven, but dressed in dark green and standing more confidently than was usual for her. Slade knew somehow that the girl in the mirror was not the Raven he had been seeking. The Not-Raven winked (another thing completely unlike her), and beckoned.

Suddenly, with only the faintest idea of what had happened, Slade was in a world even stranger than Lamech's Realm.

**A.N. **Late, I know. The next update should come sooner. Review please!


	11. Confessions

**A.N: **Okay, this update took way longer than expected. Sorry about that. If people could please actually review this chapter, that would be cool, especially because the last chapter didn't do so super in the review department. But I still love you guys...most of you, that is...

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Teen Titans. Never have, and probably (sadly) never will.

**Slade**

"Wake up. Slade, wake up."

After a moment of disorientation and confusion, Slade was wide awake. He remembered seeing a nearly transparent, green-clad Raven in the hotel mirror. He assumed it was she who had somehow...sucked him in to this place, wherever it was, before catching him off guard and knocking him out with a knife-hand to the throat. The girl standing over Slade looked as much like Raven as had his attacker, but (like the afore mentioned assailant) something was off about her.

"Raven?" he asked, getting to his feet.

She nodded. "Sorry about Br-that, um, messenger. She gets carried away. Not unlike some other messengers I know."

Slade ignored the unnecessary comment and took a moment to look Raven over. She looked sick, to put it simply. She looked starved, and even if Raven hadn't been fed since before her capture she shouldn't have looked so hungry. She was clothed in a knee-length brown dress with a white bodice and what seemed to be a white petticoat peeking out from beneath the skirt. Even more shocking was the detail Slade noticed last: the scabbed over area on Raven's forehead where her red gemstone had been embedded. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, this?" said Raven, tugging at the skirt of her dress. The deadpan way she said it assured Slade that Raven had not been broken yet.

Raven sighed. "I woke up hanging from the ceiling, they didn't feed me, they took away my powers with my stone, and decided I needed a wardrobe change. Long story short."

"Nothing else?"

"Well, I breathed a lot, and slept, and my heart beat, and-"

"You know what I mean." Slade could be a very blunt person. Usually that didn't bother him. Now he wished he would have been more roundabout with the comment. For once, Slade was afraid to hear the wrong answer.

Raven looked down at her bare feet, closing her violet eyes for a moment. When she opened them, they echoed back her next statement. "I hoped you wouldn't ask about that."

Was he surprised? No. Then why did this have such an impact on him? _You already know. So what do you do next?_

"I'm sorry," Slade managed to say.

"Right," said Raven sarcastically. "The only reason you're here is because my subconscious is totally naive, and you haven't found another way home yet."

"Your subconscious...?"

"Forget it." She turned away. "I can't believe I actually started to trust you. After everything you've done, after Terra-"

"This has nothing to do with that!"

"Of course it does! This is just you lying and manipulating people into doing what benefits _you_. But who could blame you, Slade? After all, you were just trying to get your _life _back."

"Raven-"

"So you rescue me, and then you _kiss _me, and then you leave me alone! In there with _him! _He told me I was _lucky _to be the daughter of a demon and then he-he... I can't do this anymore! And you being here now is worse than you _not _being there _before_."

Slade snapped. He grabbed Raven's arm and spun her around to face him. "I have been looking for you for _three days_, taking out things that shouldn't even _exist_ for you, and now you're telling me you don't care? I am so _sorry _that I'm trying to rescue you. Have fun in the dungeon, since you apparently don't want to be saved."

Then he noticed her shocked expression, and let go of her arm.

Raven blinked a few times, then whispered, "You werelooking for me? This whole time?"

Slade rolled his eye. "I thought I already established that."

"Why?"

"Because I'm in love with you, that's why."

**A.N. **And let's stop right there. Hee hee. I'll be trying to update on at least a weekly basis from now on, so chapters might be shorter. Just a heads up. Please review!


	12. Almost Romantic

**A.N. **Sorry I'm late guys! I shall do better next time!

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Teen Titans. You know the drill.

**Raven**

_"Because I'm in love with you, that's why."_

Did he really just say that? Did she really just hear that? Was she really just standing there blinking like a idiot while Slade suddenly looked less composed than she'd ever seen him?

It wasn't romantic in the slightest. How he said it in an argument, with scorn and frustration.

It was completely romantic. How he was on a sort of quest to rescue her from the deep dark dungeon.

"Really?" Raven managed to half-whisper.

A pause, but not too long. Lack of confidence had never struck her as being on of Slade's issues. "Really."

"Um...wow."

"I thought you would have figured it out before now." No, he had not magically transformed into her classic knight in shining armor. He was still Slade. Even in an alternate dimension's alternate dimension Slade managed to act like he knew what he was going on.

Still... when there were spells that could take him back to Earth he had stayed. Somehow... somehow, the wounds left by Blood that would scar forever were closing up. Only a little, but that was enough for now. It was enough for Raven to realize what she had known all along.

She took a half step closer to Slade. She got on her tip-toes, wrapped her arms around Slade's neck, and kissed him.

She had thought, for a second, that it would bring back all those painful, painful ugly memories stained by Blood upon her brain. That they would overtake her again. Instead, the short, not-so-romantic kiss wiped all thoughts of the cult leader from her mind.

"I guess I..." Raven started, then realized she had started it completely wrong and began again. "I love you, too."

She smiled. He smiled. They both were surprised at how uncommonly easily the expression came.

"Then I should probably get around to rescuing you," Slade said. "Tell me what you know about the Church of Blood."

**A.N. **Short! I know! Sorry again! However, since we are nearing the end here, the chapters ahead should be a good length. Review please!


	13. Wedding Crasher, part 1

**A.N. **For once, I'm not complaining that the last chapter did horribly in the reviews department. It was short and stupid and late. Hopefully this will redeem me in your eyes. So please **read **and **review!**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Teen Titans. Darn.

**Slade**

Despite catatonic passengers and annoying conductors, the Train of Thought was probably both the most brilliantly weird and most weirdly brilliant invention of all time. Assuming that Lamech's Realm actually worked in terms of time. Sometimes Slade just stopped trying to figure out magic.

Raven had explained how to give the Train, which she already knew all about from various books, mental directions to places that were hidden. The place in question was obviously the Church of Blood. He just hoped he could get there while he still had the chance.

**Raven**

"Wake up, demon girl."

Raven did not bother to explain the differences between sleeping and meditating, as well as those between demon and _half-_demon. The Church of Bloods hired guards because of bicep size, not brain size. Which was definitely a good thing.

She rose to her feet unsteadily. She was far from needing to put on an act of weakness. Hopefully Slade could get there while she still had a chance.

The knuckle-dragging guard threw a bundle of cloth at Raven. "Put it on."

He didn't bother to give her some privacy. _You've got to be kidding me. _"Do you really think Brother Blood's going to like you ogling the future mother of his child?" Raven asked.

The guard saw the logic in that and slammed the door after announcing that Raven had two minutes to change. Raven dressed as quickly as possible, mostly because she didn't trust the guard's honesty _or _his counting skills. She had been supplied with a red robe. The mark of Scath was outlined in black on both the chest and the hood. The worst the about the outfit was that it actually made her look good. Apparently this ceremony was a pretty big deal.

"Where am I going, anyway?" Raven said to her escort on the march down the stone hall.

"The chapel," he near-grunted.

"Why the chapel?" Not that Raven would put anything past the Church of Blood, but she thought the ceremony would be a quick chant and then Brother Blood would carry her off.

The guard eyed Raven like maybe she was the dim one. "Because you're gettin' married."

**Slade**

One long train ride and four unconscious guards later, Slade was patrolling the halls of the Church of Blood. It resembled more of a fortress of doom than a church from the outside. From the inside it seemed to depend on which room you were in. He had acquired the information about Raven's exact location from a trainee dedicate. Said dedicate had assumed Slade was Raven's escort.

After only a few minutes of searching, Slade spotted Raven's real escort waiting outside her cell door. The burly man wore the same type of guard uniform as Slade. _This is going to be too easy._

**Raven**

"Why am I getting married?"

Again the guard looked incredulous. "Church rules. Plus they want an excuse to keep you around, in case anything happens to the first demon kid. The Blood family kills each other off a lot."

"Why do you work for them if they're so unreliable?" If Slade wasn't going to show up, Raven needed to have a Plan D. Knowing Slade, he probably already had A, B, and C in motion.

They turned into a deserted, darker-than-usual hallway. The guard shrugged before answering. "I like puttin' the hurt on people. And sometimes if we do good we get broads like you after the high-ups are done."

"Wrong answer," came a familiar deep voice from behind the guard. He was slumped against the wall before Raven could blink.

She turned around. "Slade!"

He barely nodded. "The Bloods are running a tight schedule. We need to get out as soon as possible."

"Wait! They have my gem. My powers-"

"We can come back for that. Right now we're getting-"

"Stopped in your tracks, I believe you were going to say," interrupted Father Blood. The old man didn't look so over-confident when there were a dozen guards behind him.

**A.N. **It's not a cliffie, it's a two parter. So there. Please review!


	14. Wedding Crasher, part 2

**A.N. ** I am so sorry I didn't update this for so long! I promise that this fic will be finished. Please review! (Even though I don't deserve it for being such an awful updater.)

**Disclaimer: **Don't own Teen Titans. Darn it.

_"The Bloods are running a tight schedule. We need to get out as soon as possible."_

_"Wait! They have my gem. My powers-"_

_"We can come back for that. Right now we're getting-"_

_"Stopped in your tracks, I believe you were going to say," interrupted Father Blood. The old man didn't look so over-confident when there were a dozen guards behind him__._

**Slade**

Raven didn't look at all scared by the situation, and Slade thought he understood why. This was a fight, plain and simple, or at least it felt like one. This was what they did regularly; it wasn't some demonic ceremony or uncharted dimension.

"Do you have a plan?" she asked in her usual monotone.

Slade thought for a second, then raised a hand and shot a blast of fire at Blood and the guards. "Run," he replied.

She was smart enough to comply.

Predictably, the guards didn't take long to recover, especially since when Raven had returned him to life it seemed to have weakened his powers. Slade could hear an angry Father Blood shout the clichéd, "After them!" Factoring in Raven's condition, he knew they would be caught far more quickly than he wanted to think about. The guards were thugs, but Blood was another story, and again factoring in Raven's condition...

_Look at you, worrying about her._

_I'm equally worried about myself. This is Blood's territory and he has numbers on his side._

Slade could undeniably hear thudding boots approaching way too fast for comfort. Beside him, Raven was clearly running on a waning supply of adrenaline. They couldn't escape by just running.

_You can't get revenge by just running, either._

_There_ was something they could use: a door open to an empty corridor.

Grabbing her wrist, he pulled Raven inside and quickly sealed the metal door shut with the power he could hardly believed he had ever lived without at this point. It had really been a bad decision on Blood's part to give it to him.

"Do you know how to get out of here?" Raven asked, leaning against the stone wall for support.

Slade noticed for the first time how dark the circles under her eyes were. "Only from the way I came in."

"Great." Her sarcastic attitude was undermined by her startled jump as the guards started pounding on the other side of the door.

"Your lack of confidence in me is insulting," Slade said. He held out the red gemstone he had been carrying in his belt. "They left it on the edge of the pit when they took you. Will it give you your powers back?"

"It should," said Raven. She took the stone from his hand and raised it to the hole in her forehead. "Only one way to find out."

The half demon took a deep breath and forced the gem into her forehead. Almost immediately her entire body began to shake violently. Slade grabbed Raven's arms to hold her up; a seizure on this floor would probably fracture her skull. When he touched her, she stared up into his eyes. Her own had turned bright white and radiate light and a power older than the universe.

Raven steadied herself by gripping his arms. Suddenly, a searing hot pain flooded through Slade, and he could see tongues of flame writhing their way into Raven's arms. He realized she must be draining his power. Was she really the same person, or had the rush of power transformed her into what she was truly meant to be?

"_Slade,_" she said in a voice like a hundred echoes of herself, "_Thank you for helping us. You have done more good than you could ever know. Now we must repay our debt._"

The door Slade had sealed turned black and sunk into the ground. The guards who had been trying to pry into open or break it down looked shocked as Raven's dark energy consumed them as well. Mouths open in silent screams, they sank into the void she had created.

Father Blood backed against the opposite wall of the hallway. Obviously terrified, he still tried to maintain his confident, sneering demeanor. "Come now, Raven. You know we were only doing what we thought Trigon's message as. Clearly you know something we don't. If you would only enlighten your Church-"

Raven did not grace him with a final statement. Father Blood was there was second, and the next he was gone, though his scream echoed after him in the corridor.


	15. Doorways

**A.N. **Again, sorry for being a sucky updater and all that. However, I am focusing on finishing this story before my others, just because it's been in the works for like two years. There should be only one or two chapters left after this. **R & R**, por favor, and enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing.

**Beast Boy**

This was seriously the most trippy - and maybe the most dangerous - place Beast Boy had ever been. That was the only thing he was mostly sure of.

Lenore was like a giant crossover of ... everything. No one looked at his green skin oddly. Beast Boy was tempted to just transform into a pterodactyl right there on the sidewalk and see if anyone even gave him a second glance. But he had to focus. His mission to find Raven was totally failing. She'd been missing for too long for something bad _not_ to have happened, and that meandering Train of Thought with the hick conductor and weirdy singing hobo had set Beast Boy even more behind.

He stopped in his determined wandering to stare through the window of a store called Satsuki's. A DVD set in the back - he could have sworn a picture of the Titans was on it. When he looked closer, there was a bookshelf there.

"See something you like?" said a voice from the left.

Beast Boy turned. A very human looking man in his mid-thirties was looking at him expectantly from the doorway of the store. Beast Boy peered through the window again, but the bookshelf was still in the place where the DVDs had been. "Uh, not really," Beast Boy said.

"Did you think you did?"

"Huh?"

"Did you think you saw something you'd like? Or maybe just something... familiar?" asked the man.

"Yeah, how'd you..." Beast Boy trailed off, suspiciously examining the man. This had to be the only normal looking dude in Lenore. Jeans, a white button-up shirt, blond hair and a short beard. A neutral, yet somehow _knowing_ expression. "Who are you?"

"I'm Satsuki."

"Yeah, right. Dude, this isn't _Naruto_."

The man chuckled. "My wife was Japanese. I took her name when we got married down here."

That sort of made sense. "So that's how it works in, uh, this thing?" Beast Boy gestured in the direction of the general surroundings.

"Marriage works however you want it to in Lamech's Realm, Garfield," said Satsuki. "Why don't you come inside?"

"No thanks, I kind of need to keep looking for my - wait. How did you know my name?"

Satsuki smiled. "The few of us who were born here tend to have easy access to things like time, dimensional portals, and the mind, to name a few."

Beast Boy stepped back from the shopkeeper. This guy was too casual, _too_ human for that comment. "Why are you telling me this?"

"More people have an interest in Raven than you think," Satsuki said. "And you should know, she doesn't belong in your world. She doesn't belong anywhere. That's why should leave her here, where no one belongs. It's the only place she can be happy. You do want her to be happy, don't you, Garfield?"

"She's happy with us. She belongs with _us_," said Beast Boy, backing up a few steps more. "Dude, you don't know her."

"Do you?"

"What? Yeah, of course I do. She's my friend-"

"Raven will always be vulnerable anywhere in your realm, especially Earth, where she was conceived. Realize this and go home," insisted Satsuki.

"No way am I going home! I don't care what you say, you're not her friend. You don't care about her like I do, and you can't stop me from bringing her back!"

Satsuki shook his head. "I'm not trying to understate your friendship. I'm trying to persuade you to do the right thing, because even though you mean well, Garfield, your desire to bring Raven to Earth stems from selfishness."

Beast Boy backed away. "No."

The shopkeeper smiled wistfully, and reentered his store, flipping the sign on the door to say _Closed_.

**Raven**

This was definitely the most amazing place Raven had ever been. The city of Lenore was ridiculously diverse, and for the first time in her life she felt like she intrinsically belonged. She could feel the magic at the city's core, as if she was immersed in a lake of it.

"Raven? We're here," said Slade.

Raven looked up at the building she had almost walked past. It was an emerald green pagoda with three floors. The roof and top portion of the walls of the third story had apparently been destroyed by some sort of supernatural disaster. "This is the hotel? Do you have a ceiling?" she asked.

"I didn't exactly have a large budget. And the room is on the second floor, so yes," Slade replied. He opened one side of the French door to the hotel. "After you," he said, with a gesture of his hand and a somewhat sarcastic gleam in his eye.

**Slade**

Raven took a step toward the doorway, then stopped. "What are we doing?"

Slade smiled a bit mockingly at her, trying to suppress the feeling that this was all about to go horribly wrong. "I'm sorry, I thought you were aware we were entering a hotel," he answered sarcastically.

She came close to glaring at him. "No, I mean me being here with you," she said. "What was I thinking? What were _you_ thinking?"

What had he been thinking? Well, apparently he had been too busy misinterpreting nearly everything that had happened between them, but he wasn't going to say that out loud. He had thought the situation, though unconventional, was very clear to both parties involved. "I was thinking that perhaps you needed some time to recover after this... _ordeal_ before you made any decisions."

"That's what I'm saying, decisions about _what_?"

"I suppose that's entirely up to you."

She glared at him; he maintained a business-like expression.

"_Excuse_ me."

They both turned to see a man who resembled a spray-tanned vampire sporting a monocle. "You're blocking the door," he said, looking at Slade pointedly.

Raven and Slade moved to the side, no longer blocking any access port to the hotel. This merited a curt "thank you" from the creature. Raven seemed to realize how public a location their discussion was taking place in, and continued in a quieter tone. "It's not like we could, you know, be together when we go back, it would never-"

"Raven, I'm not going back," Slade interrupted.

"What?"

He had hoped to tell her under different circumstances that this, preferably inside and a day or two forward in time. "Earth has nothing for me. It hasn't for a long time, but I didn't really see that until I was presented with an alternate option."

She looked about as surprised as he'd thought she would, but considerably more angry. "So this bounty hunting thing you told me about on the train, that's your alternate option?"

Slade couldn't help but smirk at this. "Would you rather me continue my less legal career?"

"I -" she stopped, and most of the anger faded from her expression. "No. I just didn't think you were the type to run and hide from the world."

"I'm not. What is there for me to run or hide from? There really is nothing there for me."

Raven temporarily ignored the last sentence and focused on the question. "Gods, Slade, how am I supposed to know? Maybe it's your past or your mistakes, or maybe-"

Slade's eye narrowed. "No, Raven, I think you're confusing me with yourself."

The half-demon crossed her arms over her chest, hiding her reaction to his interruption in a second. "And I think _you're_ confused if you think there's any chance I'm staying here with you. Goodbye, Slade."

All he could do - wanted to do? - was stare after her as she walked away, and soon became indistinguishable from the throng of beings like her.


	16. Departure

**A.N. **This is a shortie, but I couldn't find a better stopping place. Only one or two more chapters left! **R & R**, por favor.

**Disclaimer: **Nothing. That's what I own.

**Raven**

She hated people. The worst part of being a Titan was the public recognition. Of course, one of the reasons she joined the team was not to be seen as a monster anymore, but she didn't really care if people actually _saw_ that. As long as her heroism was real and true, then it didn't matter how other people looked at her.

In Lenore, for the first time in her life she had enjoyed being in a crowd. So many strangers walked the streets, all so different but all belonging there. Some were there to start a life and some to die; some to love and some to hate; some to begin and some to end. There were so many powerful auras around her, Raven could almost sense pieces of their fates. For once, it didn't matter that she was different, and that she would never - _could_ never belong anywhere. This was nowhere, and therefore she belonged.

That was when she wasn't alone.

Now Raven only saw a street packed with monsters like her, and including her. It wasn't a main thoroughfare; it was suspiciously busy. The throng of pedestrians were Lenore's fingers, grasping at any part of her they could use to keep her trapped. Her heart included, apparently.

Brave facepalmed. Love shook its head. Fear nudged her forward. Knowledge was nowhere to be found.

And then, somehow, someone else was.

"Raven!" came a familiar voice from across street.

Her eyes widened in surprise when she spotted the voice's owner. "Beast Boy?"

"Raven! Wait! Stay right there!" A skinny green figure could be seen weaving and pushing its way through the veritable sea of pedestrians.

The half-demon didn't think she could have moved if she had wanted to.

"Dude," panted Beast Boy, once he was standing in front of her, "I didn't- I mean, I never- I mean, wow. I found you. Are you okay? What happened to you?"

_"What happened to you?"_

_"Oh, this? __I woke up hanging from the ceiling, they didn't feed me, they took away my powers with my stone, and decided I needed a wardrobe change. Long story short.__"_

Raven blinked, then resumed her composure. "Nothing."

"What? No way. I know you probably don't want to talk about it, but I really need to know," insisted Beast Boy. It was within his rights, as her knight in shining armor, to know what he had saved her from.

_"Nothing else?"_

_"Well, I breathed a lot, and slept, and my heart beat, and-"_

"I escaped. I don't see what else you need to know," Raven replied, fighting not to look away from his brave, naive green eyes.

"Come on, something must have happened. This is Slade _and _Trigon we're talking about. That's like a double boss level kind of danger," he persisted. "You can tell me."

_"You know what I mean."_

_"I hoped you wouldn't ask about that."_

"Beast Boy, I'm fine," she said, then looked into those eyes again and felt too harsh. What had he gone through for her? "But thank you. Thank you so much for coming for me."

He grinned, those pearly white fangs exposed at the sound of her lie. "No problem. But don't think you can get out of telling your awesome escape story. Everybody's going to want to hear it when we get home."

"How do we get home?" For once, Beast Boy had thought farther ahead than her.

The green Titan held up a dark blue, smaller version of the communicator everyone connected with the team carried with them. "The Herald was sort of in on the whole Rescue Raven plan. I'll just, um, call him." Pushing one button really wasn't worth all that fumbling. "Hey, Herald? I got her... yeah. Are you sure?... Okay, okay. Raven, look behind you in five... four... three... two-"

"I see it." A gaping portal had opened to her left. Apparently the Herald's tracking wasn't completely spot on.

Beast Boy's guilt-inspiring grin was back. "Ready to go home?"

"Yeah." As she looked into the void, Raven felt the urge to run away rise unbidden in her throat. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply, afraid to chant even mentally lest her subconscious use it as a chance to mutiny. Home. That was Titans Tower, and nothing had happened that could possibly have changed that.

The two Titans stepped through the portal, side by side. Neither looked back.

_"I'm sorry."_


	17. Finale

**A.N. **Alright, here it is. The last chapter. I hope you've enjoyed the story and I'm sorry it's taken to so long to write. Oh, and happy Halloween! **Please review** even if you haven't before, just because this is the end and I'd really like to know what you've thought of both this chapter and the story as a whole.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything, including the lyrics from the song _I'm Taking You With Me_ by Relient K, which sort of inspired this fic.

**Raven**

The Teen Titans were great friends. Maybe in the past they had been at a loss to know how to respond to each other's problems, but eventually they got the hang of it. The team knew exactly how to react when a member was dealing with problems from their past, or feeling like they had just left the only place they could even truly call home, or getting over a breakup. Well, if the thing that had just ended for said member could even really be called a relationship, and not just worried of an _It's Complicated_ status on Facebook.

If she could have told them that was what was really going on, Raven told herself, the Titans would have reacted appropriately. Of course, she couldn't tell them. So the team, especially Robin, asked her about what happened, listened to her fabricated escape story, and made sure she was okay. And then threw a party celebrating her safe return. Hooray.

Raven managed to convince Starfire not to call practically everyone with a Titans communicator. Robin helped, after sending her an I-know-this-feeling-I-was-capture-by-Slade-first-remember? nod. She twitched her mouth in an upward direction at him in response.

After two hours of pizza, DDR showdowns, charades, and a strange incident involving a goose and most of the soda, Raven decided it was safe to say she was tired and leave. About halfway to her room she allowed herself to exhale; nobody was going to follow her to attempt a heart-to-heart about whatever they thought she was going through. All she wanted to do was sleep for a few days so she would have enough energy to keep up the act that she was.

"Hey, Raven, wait up."

But apparently she wasn't out of the woods yet.

"What, Beast Boy?"

**Beast Boy**

Should he really be talking to her right now? She sounded kind of angry and annoyed and like she wanted to be alone - but Raven was pretty much always like that. This was probably as good a time as any.

Beast Boy jogged up next to his cloaked teammate. Yikes, she looked hostile with her hood up like that, like she was using the cloth to shield herself from him. "Um, hi."

"Hi," she replied in her usual deadpan.

"So that thing with the root beer was pretty hilarious, right? I didn't know I could sneeze myself back that-" seeing her expression, he stopped himself midsentence, "Where are you going?"

A pause, then, "The roof."

"Oh. I thought you said you were tired."

"The roof is quiet." She shot him a look. "And if you thought you already knew where I was going, why did you ask?"

"Just making conversation?" Beast Boy answered lamely, keeping his eyes on her. Maybe this _wasn't_ the best time. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

Raven sighed. "Can it wait?"

He gulped. "Does it have to?"

"Fine."

When Raven was a few steps ahead of him, Beast Boy quickly fist pumped in victory. Tonight was the night.

**Slade**

Cantinas were good places to go when one did not want to think about anything. So he stood there, leaned up against the wall, fully armored and masked, and waited, watching the bar patrons and reading the wanted posters. Sometimes matching the bar patrons to the wanted posters and making sure to remember that for future reference.

Eventually, he would go back to his room and start training himself for this new world of opponents, when he could trust himself to concentrate.

**Raven**

Sitting on the edge of the roof, she couldn't help but notice how jumpy Beast Boy was. It was extremely distracting, but from what she didn't know. So Raven just looked out at the night sky, realizing how vast the void between stars was, until the boy beside her started to speak.

"Raven?" he began.

"If you have something to say to me, just say it."

"I - yeah. I just wanted to say that, um, you're really great, and smart, and could maybe probably kick my butt in a fight some of the time, and you're really hot - I mean, pretty - I mean, beautiful. Yeah. Totally. And, um, well -"

Something weird was going on here. At first Raven thought that maybe it was a Titans conspiracy, a scheme to make her feel better about herself and not focus on her capture. But that really didn't make much sense, especially since the team was virtually convinced that nothing significant had happened to her while she was gone.

"- And I just wanted to say that I like you. I really like you. And I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go out. On a date. You know, when you - when you want to leave your room sometime."

Having bravely finished his speech, Beast Boy looked at her with a mixture of fear and expectation. Raven managed to keep her jaw from dropping off the roof. He _liked _her? Since when? And why? And why did he have to tell her _now_? It's not like she could use the excuse that she didn't want him to be the rebound guy; Beast Boy didn't know that was what he was trying to be.

"I don't," she said curtly. "Like you. Not in that way. Sorry."

He nodded, turning his face to hide the extent of his disappointment. If she hadn't been so tense about the whole thing, Raven might have smiled. Beast Boy always had to act tougher than he was, even though, as the youngest of the team, he had an excuse not to. He'd come a long way since she had first met him, but that wasn't the issue.

"I thought you might say that," Beast Boy replied. "But maybe we could just try it? Just one date, no strings attached. Unless you wanted there to be."

"I'm not looking for a relationship right now," Raven said. She cringed mentally at the cliché, however true it was. Well, regarding him it was.

No. Not 'regarding him', regarding everybody. She had just been kidnapped, raped, and almost forced to marry a psychotic cult leader's son. She wasn't in a position to have a relationship with anybody, because she couldn't _tell_ anybody. No one, no matter how great of a friend they were, would be able to look at her again without seeing damaged goods.

"Actually, I guess I'm not looking for a relationship ever," she added.

Beast Boy looked at her with confusion. "Why?" He paused, then said, "Don't say I wouldn't understand. Even if I can't, I can try."

That was when it hit her. Somebody had already tried and succeeded, and she had left him. The only place she could ever truly belong contained the only person she could ever truly belong with. She had made a terrible mistake.

"I just want to be alone. And I'm not saying that just because I can. Earth doesn't have any people like me." She stood. "Good night, Beast Boy."

As she disappeared through the roof, Raven realized that what she had really meant to say was 'good bye.'

**Beast Boy**

"Hey, Beast Boy. Wake up."

The light... so bright. The green teenager reach for his pillow to cover his head with, but it wasn't beneath his head anymore. To express his confusion, he mumbled something along the lines of, "Nnnrggle flrrckle muh."

"Oh no you don't. Up. This is important." The sternness in Cyborg's voice wavered for a moment. "This is really important, man."

Beast Boy opened his eyes and sat up. "Huh?"

The older Titan looked away. "Let's go to the kitchen."

The walk from Beast Boy's room seemed much longer than it ever at before, even that one time where he had just recovered from the flu and hadn't eaten for like two and a half days. When he saw Robin and Starfire standing by the counter, looking at a piece of paper, the ambiguity of the situation only heightened his anxiety.

"What - ?" he began.

"It's Raven," Cyborg interrupted.

"When I went to get breakfast this morning, I saw this on the counter," Robin said. He handed Beast Boy the piece of paper.

It read: _Titans, if you're reading this, it means I'm far away. Don't worry; I left of my own free will. Beast Boy, you know where to find me, but please don't come looking._

"Don't come looking?" the shape-shifter exclaimed. "Why does she-"

"Keep reading," Robin said.

_I want to explain my actions so you don't question the practicality of them. As you already know, I am half demon and half human. I was raised in the dimension of Azarath, with the group of humans who protected my mother after she was impregnated by Trigon. I never felt like I belonged there. The people stayed away from me because they believed that if I felt strong emotions, then Trigon would be able to use me. When I was old enough and had learned enough about my powers, I ran away to Earth, and your dimension._

_At first, I was completely alone, and did not return to Azarath only because I was afraid that Trigon could reach me more easily there. When I met you, and became a member of the Teen Titans, I slowly came to realize that life was worth living. Even a cursed life like mine. Being a part of this team allowed me to feel emotions I didn't know I could feel, and to learn that even though my soul was tainted at conception, I am still capable of good._

_But I still did not belong on in this planet, and did not think I could truly belong anywhere. When I was in Lamech's Realm, and visited the city of Lenore, I was proven wrong. That city, that whole dimension, is for beings who have nowhere to call home. The misfits of the multiverse and beyond live there, and I am one of them. _

_That is why I have left you. But I want you to know that I don't regret a single day I spent as one of your teammates, and one of your friends. Robin, Starfire, Cyborg, and Beast Boy - you are the closest thing I've ever had to a loving family. I hope you don't resent me after what I've done, and I hope to see you in the life to come. Good bye._

_Raven_

Beast Boy looked up from the note in his hands to the eyes of his fellow Titans. "She's - she's really gone?"

They nodded.

He couldn't believe it. This wasn't supposed to happen. Raven had written it herself; they were a family. "We have to go talk her out of this. I know if we just talk to her, she'll realize how crazy she's being."

Robin opened his mouth first, but it was Starfire who spoke. "Beast Boy, you do not understand her position."

"And you do?" Beast Boy snapped.

"Yes," Starfire replied. "I am also not from this planet. It used to be sometimes hard for me to feel at home here. I do not feel that way anymore, but Raven and I are very different people. I am native to this galaxy, but she is not even native to this dimension. While I truly wish that she had said goodbye in person, I believe we should let her go."

Cyborg nodded. "I've got to agree with Star."

Robin put a hand on Beast Boy's shoulder. "As much as I hate to say it, I think Raven has a right to leave."

Beast Boy stared at the floor. He refused to admit to himself that there might be tears in his eyes. "I - okay. It's just going to take a while to - I just can't believe she's gone." He blinked a few times and raised his head to face his friends. "But yeah, I guess she'll be okay."

**Raven**

Once she reached Lenore, the building Slade had led her to was surprisingly easy to find. It was like the city was leading her to it. Standing outside the roofless structure, she could sense him so strongly it was almost like the city was leading her to him. Raven let this sense carry her all the way to the fourth room on the right on the second floor, but hesitated when she reached out to knock.

What if he had changed his mind about her after she had left? What if he had been planning to come after her, and now she just looked needy? Raven shook her head. There was no need to get all shallow and dramatic about this. She knocked.

Slade opened the door. His widened slightly in surprise. "Hello."

"Hello," Raven said. She took a deep breath, and added, "I decided to come back."

"I can see that." The corner of his mouth twitched into a smirk, but only for a second. "How long are you planning to stay this time?"

So this was how he was going to be. Raven wanted to glare at him, and argue that he count himself lucky that she had returned even for a second, but she knew that was what he would expect. Instead, she took a step closer and said, "How long will you have me?"

Slade, not the type to make sappy speeches about love and dedication, pulled her close and kissed her. By the time she pulled the door closed behind them, Raven had no doubt in her mind of what this answer meant.

**The End**

_If home is where the heart is  
Then my home is where you are  
It's getting oh so hard  
To spend these days  
Without my heart_

Every second that goes by  
Is one more second off my life  
And it couldn't be more clear  
That I'm literally dying without you here  
And every second that goes by  
Is one more second off my life  
And it couldn't be more clear  
I'm dying without you here

_So I'm taking you with me  
Anywhere that I  
Could ever want to be  
For the rest of my life  
I want you there with me  
And if there ever comes a time  
Where I should have to leave  
I hope you know that I  
I'm taking you with me_


End file.
